Page 12 of Possessive Mafia Bodyguard

Anger flares inside my chest. “She almost died saving Cartier. She would do the same again if she had to, even if it took more strength than she had to give.”

A sob is brewing inside my chest like a volcano preparing to erupt.

“She would never walk away from this life, from you, from me.”

“Do you have any idea where she might have gone?” Andrej asks.

I cast my mind back over the last few days. While I was out working for Leonid, what was my sister doing? The only thing I do know for a fact is that she wouldn’t have been sitting around the house watching TV or reading a book; she has too much unspent energy to sit still for extended periods of time.

I shake my head and try to picture Ivana walking out of this house with no destination in mind just like we tried to do when we were eight years old, and my throat tightens when I realize the image isn’t the same as it would’ve been a year ago, or even six months ago. I’ve noticed and shoved aside the sluggishness in her movements, the way she holds herself with her shoulders slightly bowed like a wounded animal trying to heal. Because I didn’t want to face up to the very real possibility that she’s no longer the strongest twin.

My thought process must play out across my face because Leonid says gently, “Maybe it was time for her to walk away.”

“No!” I shut him down before he says something unforgiveable. “She isn’t an animal. She hasn’t crawled into a hole to fade away quietly.” My hands are balled into tight fists, my fingernails slicing into my palms. “That isn’t Ivana. She would never stop fighting.”

Andrej and Leonid exchange glances that I don’t understand, and then Andrej says, “Survival instinct isn’t always about fighting.”

I narrow my eyes at him and take small comfort from the way he recoils from the pure untethered anger on my face. “You don’t know her like I do. Fighting is in her blood because what else is there?”

I go to the door and turn around to face them before I leave.

“I’ll find her. I’ll find her, and I’ll bring her back, and then I want you to leave her in my charge. I don’t care if she isn’t as strong as she was before; I’ll keep her alive. I’ll do whatever it takes because I promised her that I would.”

“Tamara—” Leonid begins, but I’m already walking away.

I go back to my sister’s room and blink at the breakfast tray on the dressing table. I made pancakes for her when I had no idea that she was already gone.

Where did she go? What was going through her mind yesterday when she refused to come to the port with me and walked out of this house alone?

She’s still alive. I would know if she wasn’t because there would be an Ivana-shaped hole in my chest through which the rest of the world would disappear. A hole that no one else would ever be able to fill, even if I wanted them to.

And I can prove it.

I drop to my knees and feel inside the mattress on my sister’s bed. My heart skips when my fingers wrap around our mother’s silver hairbrush and the crumpled photograph.

Sitting back on my heels, I study them as if they hold the answers to where my sister might’ve gone. One thing’s for certain though: she wouldn’t have left them behind, even if she couldn’t face saying goodbye to me, which means that she intends to come back once she has done whatever she set out to do. Because despite Leonid’s misgivings about Ivana’s strength, she is an enforcer at heart, and she is loyal to two people.

Him and me.

Wherever she has gone, she must believe that it’s the only way to save one of us, even if it means sacrificing herself, and I won’t stop until I find her.

I lie down on Ivana’s bed and stare up at the ceiling with the hairbrush and the photograph cradled against my chest.

“I’ll find you,” I whisper. “I promised to keep you safe, and that will never change.”

4

FINN

She must work for the Ivanovs. She was at the Iroquois Landing last night scoping out security for their next shipment just as Aiden suggested. It’s the only explanation, although I still refuse to believe that she’s involved in any trafficking operations the sick Russian fucks are currently handling. She might be close to the Pakhan, but it doesn’t mean he shares all his secrets with her.

Just as I haven’t shared our meeting with Aiden.

If she does know about it and is willing to keep silent while women and children get sold for the pleasure of monsters in designer suits… Well, I’ll cross that bridge if I come to it. My gut is telling me that it won’t come to that, and it’s never let me down yet.

Now at least, I have a starting point to track her down. Because I won’t rest until I know who she is and what the deal is with her and the Russians, even if I get myself killed in the process. I guess I’m kind of hoping that the kiss meant something to her and that she’ll spare my life a second time, although I’m fully prepared for the token pain gesture seeing as she clearly has a control fetish.

Blood rushes directly to my loins at the thought of her being in control and using me however she wants. I don’t know what that says about me, and I don’t give a fuck. She can handcuff me to bedposts and ride me like a bucking bronco if it makes her happy, and I’ll be her biggest fucking cheerleader as I fill her up with my cum.